The Burning (1981) – Horror Movie Review

The Burning is a fun 80s slasher film!

So the 1980s was a great decade for the Slasher genre… Some of the most highly regarded slaseher movies of all time were released then… Including such films as: Friday The 13th (1980), A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), and even Child’s Play (1988)… And that is just to name a few!

There are some other truly amazing ones as well! Some lesser known ones… Including: Slumber Party Massacre (1982), Sorority House Massacre (1986) and even The Prowler (1981)!

It really was a gret decade for it! And you know what? With this movie helping to launch the careers of Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Fisher Stevens (Hackers) & Holly Hunter (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice). Not only is The Burning (1981) a great slasher film but it has some major popculture importance!

“There used to be a camp not far from here, just across the lake. It was called Camp Blackfoot. No one goes there anymore. Everything burnt down. This camp had a caretaker, and his name was Cropsy. Now, this Cropsy was a drunkard… a sadist, and he got real pleasure out of hurting… scaring. And he had these garden shears. The kind with long, thin blades. He carried them all the time, wherever he went. And he had this kind of demonic way of looking at you. One time, Cropsy really went after this kid from Brooklyn, followed him around night and day. He made this kid’s life a living hell. But this time, he chose the wrong guy, ’cause the kid and some of his buddies had planned a little prank. Only problem was, the gag went wrong. The next thing anybody knows, Cropsy’s trapped alive and burning in his bunk. They try to get him out, but the fire’s so fierce, they can’t reach him. All they can do is stand outside and listen to him cry out in agony. They say his smashed his way through the bunkroom door in just a mass of flames. And as he burned alive, he cried out, “I will return! I will have my revenge!” They never found his body, but he survived. He lives on whatever he can catch. Eats them raw, alive. No longer human. Right now, he’s out there. Watching, waiting. Don’t look; he’ll see you. Don’t move; he’ll hear you. Don’t breathe; you’re dead!” – Todd (A quote by: Brian Matthews from the movie: The Burning (1981).)

Ok, so this movie (which ironically in large part came in to existence thanks to the Weinstein brothers), told the story of, ‘Cropsey’ (Played by: Lou David). A janitor at a summer camp up the way!

Cropsey… Could be Jason Voorhees brother!

You see Cropsey wasn’t entirely well liked… And when a prank goes so wrong that Cropsey is torched… Cropsey is sent to an instutition so that he will be able to heal from his scars!

Well years later, Cropsey is released from the institution… And he promptly disappears!

At this point though, Cropsey has mostly become a ghost story… A.K.A. Something you tell to scare each other at a Camp fire, and so of course when the Camp is open for the summer, weird things start happening!

These kids are about to have a summer camp experience they are never going to forget!

The campers start going missing, and such! And as more and more of the campers go missing… It looks like Cropsey may have come back to haunt the Camp, and to get revenge on Campers for torching him!

Now this movie kind of basically defines the, ‘B’ Movie slasher film… It has a bunch of soon to be big names, in a low budget horror movie… But isn’t that why we love these films?

Another cool thing is I suspect that the makers of Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985), got the idea to use pruning shears from this movie, for the scene in, ‘A New Beginning’, where the patients having sex in the forest are killed the same way!

I would be surprised if the filmmakers for Friday The 13th Part 5: A New Beginning (1985) got their ideas for this death from, ‘The Burning’!

And finally the next thing I wanted to say is this… I saw this movie for the first time a few years ago… And I actually did think this movie was so good that it should have gotten a sequel of some sort!

If you haven’t seen it though… I highly recommend checking this movie out, it is pretty good, I really liked it, and I think you might as well!